The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-03-05
THE COFFEE-HOUSE REFORM,

| SoiheChihS Needed to Take the Place of
the Saloon in the Lives of the Homeless
| Population of Ills Country.
The movement to establish a system
OF coffce-hOuses in the cities and towns
of this country, after the English plan,
IS one which must meet with the hearty
favor OF all interested in the promotion
OF public morals. In all large centers
OF population public houses of some
kind are Il recognized necessity. They
fill place in our social system which
can be filled by nothing else. The
craving for human companionship, for
recreation and social cheer. is us natu-
raj in man rs the desire for food and
drink In almost every community
and in all cities are numbers of people
who are denied these pleasures and
satlStactlons, except as they are OBJ
tanned in places of public resort. Many
have no homes, or none worthy of the
name, and others have their abodcs in
the cold, cherries, forbiddin@ sur
roundings of the tenements and cheap
lodging-houses. Many are compelled
by force of circumstances to lead
hard, monotOnous lives, spending
the greater part of their time in
the close, sitting air of factories and
workshops or in the tread-mills of still
more wearisomc outdoor labor With
no strong family ties, no cheerful fire
sides to welcome them after working
hours, they are impelled to seek com
panionship in the streets. To all these
and the thousand others who for vari-
Gus reasons, bad and good, drift up
and down the thoroughfares, the ST.
looms throw open wide their doors.
In thus ministcring to certain social
wants of the multitudcs the gin-shops
| have been left in almost entire posses
sion of the field. One might walk for
miles and miles in such II city as New
York, for example, without finding a
single place where he could obtain
rest, or food, or shelter from a storm,
except in the saloons. In these places
n little money makes man welcome
for time at least. The saloons have
made the most of their advantage here,
and to light, warmth. shelter and
companionship have added their Pc
culiar enticements to vice. Men who
frequent such places are inevitably
drawn into the drink habit and
under the power of other vicious
influences, even though their original
motives in entering them might have
not been altogether censurable. 1t is
easy enough for those who have COM
Portable homes and plenty of means
and friends at command to say that
men should not visit the rum-shops for
any purpose, should not for any rea-
sons put themselves within reach of
the temptations of the saloons. But
this does not do away with the fact that
tens of thousands are found in such re-
sorts every day, and that they will con-
tinuc to be found there until some
thing better is provided. We are con-
sidering the purely practical features
OF the question, the facts of the case as
they stand. We have no apologies to
offer the existence of the drink traffic,
or any excuses for those who waste
their substance in riotous living. But
III this matter we can not stop to in
quire closely into the causes and
motives. When men are perishing in
the waves of the sea, it Is not for
those who man the lifc-boats to in
quire how and why the danger
came until the danger itself is past.
Whatever the reasons may be, the
fact before lis is undeniable. that thou
fcllow-mcn are constantly being drawn
down to death, and to what is worse
than death, through the devices and
subtle temptations of the saloon.
Recognizing the accompanying fact,
that these terrible results are due in
some real part to other attractions
than those of drink, the practical
question arises: What can be done to
Offset the saloons at these points of adj
vantage; what can be done towards
satisfying, in u proper and legitimate
| way, the want in our social SYSTEM
which the saloon in some low degree
seems to fill? The rum power is every
day being weakened by the attacks
made upon it upon political, moral
and religious grounds. Attack it upon
the social and financial side, and the
line of decentralization is complete.
Let something be devised which shall
take the place of the saloon as a resort
for the masses, with all its invitations
and cuticcments, except such as tend
to evil, making up for all that it lacks
of the features of the saloon, in honest
comfort, good cheer and real home
likeness, and the most difficult point
yet remaining in the problem of the
drink evil is solved.
1t is to meet the want which we have
thus outlined that the coflsc-house
movement has been inaugurated. The
idea of the coffee-house is just what we
have been indicating, to take the place
of the saloon us public resort, to COM
pete against the liquor-shops and draw